March 29, 2024
Ômicron has mild symptoms so far, says doctor who discovered alternative

Ômicron has mild symptoms so far, says doctor who discovered alternative

Angelique Coetzee
Illustrative image,

Patients have reported tiredness and body aches, but no hospitalizations due to the variant in South Africa, according to Dr. Angelique Coetzee.

Angelique Coetzee, the South African doctor who first identified the novel Omicron variant of the coronavirus, says patients infected so far have shown “very mild symptoms” – but more time is still needed to assess the impact on those at risk.

It says the first case was identified around November 18.

“It all started with a patient with mild symptoms. He said he had been very tired for the past two days and had had body aches and a slight headache. Not even a sore throat, but what looked like a sore throat. No cough…no loss. of smell or taste ‘,” he told Dr. Coetzee, in an interview with BBC News.

“Because it was very unusual for this particular patient to have this kind of symptom, I decided to test him,” said the doctor, who then tested all of the patient’s family with positive results. “We ran a quick test, and it came back positive.” For coronavirus, all of them have mild symptoms.